Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
Wireless communications systems may make adjustments to transmit power on a regular basis if need be. For example, with Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a rate at which a transmit power may be adjusted is typically 1500 Hertz (Hz). The transmit power control (TPC) mechanism used to make transmit power adjustments has, in some examples, relied on fixed steps sizes of 1 dB or 2 dB and one TPC command per slot, with 15 slots per 10 millisecond (ms) frame, for example. Other TPC rates are also specified for UMTS such as a 300 Hz rate for uplinks (i.e., from user equipment to base station) and a 500 Hz rate for downlinks (i.e., from base station to user equipment). These other TPC rates, however, have generally not been implemented. In addition to the TPC rates described above, CDMA 1x may perform TPC at a rate of 800 Hz and CDMA 1x-Advanced may allow TPC rates of 400 Hz and 200 Hz.
In some examples, utilizing lower TPC rates need not necessarily impact negatively the link efficiency in all scenarios. There are situations where the TPC rate is reduced or scaled down and there may be benefits in facilitating better transmit power control with the lower TPC rates. Moreover, there may be benefits in addressing TPC mechanisms that may facilitate more effective or rapid control of transmit power over a range of TPC rates.